Page 28 - aruba-today-20170610

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 10 June 2017

U.S. war veteran now fighting to save Africa’s elephants

KHALED KAZZIHA tion immediately, rather
Associated Press than write it up in reports at
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A the end of a day’s patrol-
decorated U.S. war vet- ling.
eran with two decades’ “The Kenya Wildlife Service
experience in military in- and other many conserva-
telligence, Lt. Col. Faye tion groups are doing fan-
Cuevas spent half her ca- tastic conservation work,”
reer providing intelligence Cuevas said. “However,
support to U.S. counter- the reality is that there are
insurgencies in Iraq, Af- other challenges — from
ghanistan and the Horn of a cyber perspective, from
Africa. Now she is using her a global criminal network
expertise to fight a differ- perspective — that really
ent kind of conflict: the war necessitate security ap-
on wildlife poaching. proaches integrated into
Calling herself “the ac- conservation strategies.”
cidental conservationist,” The number of Africa’s sa-
Cuevas, an air force of- vannah elephants had
ficer and a trained lawyer dropped to about 350,000
originally from Le Center, by 2014 because of
Minnesota, is not your typi- poaching, according to a
cal wildlife enthusiast. She recent study.
is determined to use her In this photo taken Friday, May 19, 2017, Faye Cuevas of the International Fund for Animal Welfare Wildlife crime is worth $10
skills, honed in conflicts (IFAW), speaks to The Associated Press in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. billion to $20 billion a year
all over the world, to help Associated Press globally, according to In-
save the planet’s remain- terpol. Kenya, a major
ing wild elephants. “If you it resembles a war in any- to predict and prevent the greed.” source country for traffick-
start to really untangle how thing but name,” Cuevas next bomb attack. She realized that she could ing in elephant ivory and
poaching happens — how said. In the U.S. Air Force, Cuevas can pinpoint the use the “left of boom” con- rhino horn, has strongly
poachers are armed, how Cuevas worked on Amer- moment she realized that cept to help wildlife rang- supported a total ban on
they’re connected into ica’s controversial drone she wanted to fight poach- ers get “left of kill.” both for decades. The gov-
larger networks and how program, collecting intel- ing. “The first time that I saw Enter tenBoma — or “10 ernment’s Kenya Wildlife
those networks can move ligence on individuals and an elephant in the wild was homesteads” — which uses Service is working closely
ivory and horn on a global organizations identified in Amboseli National Park technology to pull togeth- with Cuevas.
scale, who protects them? as threats. “Getting left of here in Kenya two years er diverse sources of infor- “There’s excitement in the
Who provides logistics? — boom” was the term used ago,” she said. “It was life- mation, from rangers to team because we’ve seen
changing.” “At the current conservation groups. She the results” of Cuevas’
rate of elephant decline, analyzes the data to “cre- work, said David Karanja,
my 6-year-old daughter ate value in information in senior warden in the wild-
won’t have an opportu- ways that it rises to the level life service’s intelligence
nity to see an elephant in of intelligence.” Together department.
the wild before she’s old with the U.S.-based Interna- TenBoma is currently being
enough to vote,” she said. tional Fund for Animal Wel- tested in the Tsavo Conser-
“Which just is unaccept- fare, Cuevas introduced vation Area, which covers
able to me, because if that a smartphone-based soft- over 42,000 sq. kilometers
Lipstixaruba@outlook.com
is the case then we have ware app that allows rang- (16,200 sq. miles) encom-
nothing to blame that on ers and field investigators passing two of Kenya’s big-
but human apathy and to enter and share informa- gest national parks.q